The number of Covid-19 exceeded 48,000 in Pakistan on Thursday after 2,193 new cases appeared in the last 24 hours.

The total number of infections in the country is 48,091, Pakistan’s health ministry said. The death toll reached 1,017 with 32 new deaths, he added.

Sindh reported a maximum number of 18,964 cases, followed by 17,382 in Punjab, 6,815 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 2,968 in Balochistan, 1,235 in Islamabad, 579 in Gilgit-Baltistan, and 148 in Kashmir occupied by Pakistan.

A total of 14,155 patients have recovered so far, officials said.

A total of 15,346 coronavirus tests, the highest in a day, were carried out in Pakistan in the past 24 hours, health officials said. The authorities have carried out 4,29,600 tests so far.

The number of daily tests increased after Planning Minister Asad Umar on Tuesday said that 30,000 tests per day would be enough for Pakistan to control the spread of the deadly virus.

Pakistan is in a position to carry out more than 25,000 tests per day, he said, expressing hope that by the end of May or early June the country would be able to do 30,000 tests per day.

Meanwhile, a report released by the Federal Federation of Pakistan Journalists (PFUJ) said that Covid-19 had claimed the lives of three mediapersons in the country and infected 156 others.

The report released on Wednesday highlighted that cameramen and photojournalists have been the biggest sufferers since the pandemic struck the country, Dawn news reported.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday that people “must learn to live with the corona virus until the vaccine is developed”. Khan spoke at the inauguration of the Telehealth Covid-19 Portal in Islamabad to help people get medical services by telephone.